Why Walls Won't Work

Repairing the US-Mexico Divide

Michael Dear

New chapter delivers updates and suggestions as to what should be done about the challenges confronting the cross-border zone

Author is a major scholar of cities and regions, and draws from his decades of work to provide a sweeping account of the US-Mexico relationship

Provides a rich account of the border region's culture and history, from the pre-Columbian era to the present

A powerful rejoinder to those who argue for more border security and more surveillance

Why Walls Won't Work

Repairing the US-Mexico Divide

Michael Dear

Description

Why Walls Won't Work is a sweeping account of life along the United States-Mexico border zone, tracing the border's history of cultural interaction since the earliest Mesoamerican times to the present day. As soon as Mexicans, American settlers, and indigenous peoples came into contact along the Rio Grande in the mid-nineteenth century, new forms of interaction and affiliation evolved. By the late-twentieth century, the border states were among the fastest-growing regions in both countries. But as Michael Dear warns, this vibrant zone of economic, cultural and social connectivity is today threatened by highly restrictive American immigration and security policies as well as violence along the border. The U.S. border-industrial complex and the emerging Mexican narco-state are undermining the very existence of the "third nation" occupying the space between Mexico and the U.S. Through a series of evocative portraits of contemporary border communities, Dear reveals how the promise and potential of this "in-between" nation still endures and is worth protecting.

Now with a new chapter updating this story and suggesting what should be done about the challenges confronting the cross-border zone, Why Walls Won't Work represents a major intellectual intervention into one of the most hotly-contested political issues of our era.

Why Walls Won't Work

Repairing the US-Mexico Divide

Michael Dear

Table of Contents

Preface

1. MONUMENTS, MEXICO AND MANIFEST DESTINY2. MAPS WITHOUT BORDERS: CONTINUITY & CONNECTION IN EARLY TIMES3. FROM FRONTIER SETTLEMENTS TO TRANSBORDER CITIES4. LAW AND ORDER AT THE BORDER 5. THIRD NATION BEFORE THE WALL6. THIRD NATION OF THE MIND7. FORTRESS USA8. MEXICO: NARCO-STATE OR FAILED STATE?9. THIRD NATION INTERRUPTED10. WHY WALLS WON'T WORK11. AFTER THE WALL, WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

EndnotesBibliography AcknowledgementsIndexList of figuresList of tables

Why Walls Won't Work

Repairing the US-Mexico Divide

Michael Dear

Author Information

Michael Dear is Professor of City and Regional Planning in the College of Environmental Design at the University of California-Berkeley. The author/editor of more than a dozen books, he has been a Guggenheim Fellowship holder, a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, and Fellow at the Rockefeller Center in Bellagio, Italy. He has received the highest honors for creativity in research from the Association of American Geographers, and numerous undergraduate teaching and graduate mentorship awards.

Why Walls Won't Work

Repairing the US-Mexico Divide

Michael Dear

Reviews and Awards

Winner of the 2013 Best Book award for Geography in the Public Interest from the American Association of Geographers

"At a time when so many fears and insecurities are projected onto the border, a book that talks about the realities of this area is a welcome addition. Berkeley geographer Michael Dear provides an accessible and informed overview of the border region. This excellent introduction to the borderlands should be obligatory reading for policymakers and new border scholars." -AAG Review of Books

"A very agreeable text, accessible to non-academic readers, which-together with the author's elegant and poetic style-at times creates the impression of reading a novel." -Documenta d'Analisi Geografica

"With the broad historical sweep and the patience to tell those earlier stories first without rushing ahead to our walled and bordered present, this book could become the definitive history of the U.S.-Mexico border. It is certainly the best I have read." -Geographical Review

"Those interested in one way that the discipline of border studies has developed to account for the post 9/11 context will find this book interesting and instructive; Dear's focus on the physicality of the border Wall itself is most convincing." -The London School of Economics and Political Science Review of Books

Why Walls Won't Work

Repairing the US-Mexico Divide

Michael Dear

From Our Blog

By Michael Dear Not long ago, I passed a roadside sign in New Mexico which read: 'Es una frontera, no una barrera / It's a border, not a barrier.' This got me thinking about the nature of the international boundary line separating the US from Mexico. The sign's message seemed accurate, but what exactly did it mean?